Six to eight months ago, librarians at downtown Wilmington’s main branch started noticing the bugs in books that were returned to the library, said the director of the city’s library system, Larry Manuel. The bugs went away for a few months, but returned in the past week.

The rest is here. I actually heard this on the morning news on TV. The fact it that most large public places…especially hospitals…deal with bed bugs all the time and they don’t even tell you.

I don’t think you can get bed bugs in an e-reader. But don’t quote me on that 🙂

Five More Reasons To Self-Publish by Sherri McInnis

Here’s a candid post written by a traditionally published author, Sherri McInnis, who talks about why she decided to go indie.

Here’s an excerpt. When I read this I felt as if I’d been transported out of my body. That’s just how honest it is. The same exact things (and more) happened to me with publishers. I’ll comment a little below.

Even the marketing department gets in on things. For instance, the marketing people didn’t like the original title of my first book, so the publisher changed it to Devil May Care. Bad luck for me because at around the same time another ‘devil’ book came out. But you probably heard of that one.

The Devil Wears Prada was so popular, people didn’t just confuse the titles – they actually thought I was Lauren Weisberger! One bookstore manager was so excited to meet because my book was “just flying off the shelves!”

You can’t imagine how disappointed we both were when I got to the store and he had a huge stack of Prada waiting for me to sign.

Remember there are lots of people who get involved in publishing your book – and as the author, you aren’t the one with the most control.

You can read the rest here. I highly suggest it because it’s written by an author who knows the difference. And I can back her up on everything.

Here’s one “control” reason that brought me to indie publishing. And it’s just one. You know my Rainbow Detective series, the one I’ve been working hard on this year? That series started out, at the publisher’s request, as something completely different and they demanded that I use a pen name. So I told them to choose the pen name and I would abide by it. I didn’t like the idea, I didn’t think it made sense, but I didn’t have a choice. I thought it was a waste of time. But they released the first two books in the series under the pen name “Dale Bishop.” The books tanked. Plus, they wouldn’t allow me to use The Rainbow Detective Agency title at all, which I thought was a huge mistake. So I listened and kept my mouth shut because that’s what writers under contract do. And when it was time to get the rights back to those books I ran with my original idea, self-pubbed them under my own name, and I have no regrets. I’m finishing up book 8 this week and I’ll be releasing it this month in time for Thanksgiving weekend.

And that’s just one example. I have plenty more for another post.

Straight Guy Gets Hit On By Gay Guy

Recently, a gay guy hit on a straight guy at a wedding and I think it shows how much things are changing.

I was at my cousins wedding reception and had just sat down from dancing. It was nearing the end of the night at this time so I was pretty secluded from everyone. A man walked up to me who I hadn’t seen before and nervously said “what’s your name?” I replied, “Chad, what’s yours?” He said “Shane, I just wanted to let you know that I have noticed you all night. I wanted to leave this with you before I left.” He handed me a piece of paper and quickly walked out. It was his number. Without knowing if I was straight or not he had built up the guts to put himself out there. I thought it was extremely brave and I know it’s something I wouldn’t be able to do. I’m sharing this to remind everyone to live their lives without regrets. Almost all of my regrets come from the things I didn’t do, not the things I did. I will be living my life more like this man and I suggest you all do as well. Good night.

My only comment here is that I’ve had the exact opposite experiences at straight weddings…all of my life. I have never once been to a straight wedding where some straight, horny, drunk married man with kids and a wife didn’t try to cruise me. I don’t know what it is about weddings that gets them going, but it always happens there. I’m too lazy to search for it now, but I’ve even posted about this right here on the blog.

And, it’s always been my experience that so-called straight guys are always a lot more aggressive with gay guys than the other way around.

I’ve been following this one all week because I’ve never actually known cruises or cruise ships to be homophobic…in a general sense. I know a lot of gay people who’ve gone on many cruises without incident.

Author of over 100 published LGBT romance novels and stories, including AN OFFICER AND HIS GENTLEMAN and best selling VIRGIN BILLIONAIRE SERIES. Hates beets.
New Hope, PA Palm Springs, CA
ryan-field.blogspot.com